


Best Regrets

by Moit



Series: Pinto Tumblr Drabbles [6]
Category: Star Trek RPF
Genre: Body Piercing, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 19:24:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6820984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moit/pseuds/Moit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At 18, piercing his eyebrow sounds like The Best Idea Ever, especially with his friends talking him into it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best Regrets

At 18, piercing his eyebrow sounds like The Best Idea Ever, especially with his friends talking him into it. He’s away at college–well, 30 minutes through Pittsburgh traffic is far enough to keep his mom from insisting that he doesn’t have permission to do this. Like he needs it.

It’s a 15-minute walk from his dorm to Hot Rod Body Piercing, and Zach is all smiles and jokes until they walk through the door. It’s smaller than he would have expected, just a couple of chairs, white walls, and a heavily tattooed and pierced guy standing at the glass display counter with a wide smile on his face. He’s got one of those piercings behind his top lip that can only be seen when he smiles.

His friends both take a seat, and Zach wants to flip them the bird. Steadying himself, he walks to the counter.

“Hi, uh, I’m here to get my eyebrow pierced.”

“Cool.” The guy asks for his ID and hands him a form to fill out.

Zach’s hands shake as he reads over the standard _not to be held liable_ as well as the instructions for afterwards: _keep your piercing clean, don’t play with it_.

He scrawls his name on the bottom of the form and slides it back across the counter. Beneath his hands are an array of barbells, rings, and plugs that look like he could slip two fingers through. “How soon can I change the jewelry?”

With a wry smile, the man hands him back his ID. “After two months at the absolute least.”

“Two months?” Zach can’t hide his surprise as he slid his ID back into his wallet. He figured it would be like a couple weeks.

“You really should wait six months.”

“Wow.”

“It will be 60 bucks.”

Zach hands over the cash and takes the receipt in return. Apparently, they get paid whether he chickened out or not.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah.” I guess. There isn’t anyone else waiting, and Zach feels his heart rate kick up a few notches.

Corey gives him a thumbs up as the heavily tattooed man leads him into the back.

There are only a few rooms set up like a doctor’s office with a paper-covered exam table and a counter space on which to work.

“You can have a seat up there. What’s your name?”

“Zach.”

“Zach. I’m Seth.” Such a normal name for a guy who looks like he belonged to some rare tribe of indigenous peoples. “Is this your first time?”

The paper makes a crunching noise as Zach settles himself on the table. “Uh, yeah. I’m a virgin, I guess.” He could have smacked himself. Quit flirting, Quinto.

“Yeah? Well, hopefully, I’ll make it good for you.” Seth winks as he pulls on a pair of surgical gloves. “So, first I’m gonna make a mark, then I’ll let you look at it, and if that’s good, we’ll go ahead with the rest.”

“Okay.” Zach presses his hands together between his thighs so he won’t bite his thumbnail while he waits.

Reflexively, he jerks backwards as Seth approaches him with a Sharpie. “You sure you want to do this?”

“Yeah, sorry, I was just surprised.” Zach holds still as Seth makes two marks on either side of his right eyebrow.

Seth trades the Sharpie for a hand mirror that he holds out to Zach. “What do you think?”

Considering he’s never done this before, he thinks it looks good enough. The dots look even, so the barbell won’t be crooked on his face. “Works for me.”

Seth takes the mirror back and begins to open sealed packages. This is it. As he watches, Zach wipes his sweaty palms down the length of his jeans. Needles don’t make him nervous, per se, but the one on the tray looks very sharp, and it is about to go into his face.

“I’m gonna clamp you first,” Seth murmurs.

Zach holds himself shock-still as Seth affixes a metal instrument to his eyebrow. He can’t completely blink, can’t close his eye, and as Seth reaches for the needle, Zach clenches his fists in anticipation of the pain.

“Take a deep breath for me, Zach.”

He inhales like he’s going under water, and he feels a sharp pinch that makes his right eye tear up.

“Now, some pressure while I put the jewelry in.”

The next thing Zach knows, Seth is handing him the mirror again, and there is a barbell in his eyebrow. “That was fast,” he says, admiring the new decoration. As the adrenaline begins to bleed out of his body, Zach can understand why people get more than one piercing.

Thirteen years later, Zach will see his scar–both marks, even–10 feet high on a movie screen, and he will curse Corey and Neal for telling him it was a good idea.

For now, though, he heads out into the Pittsburgh sunlight with his friends, intent on having a sandwich from Primanti’s and showing off his new piercing.

_ _

[embedded image of Zach's eyebrow piercing scar] 

**Author's Note:**

> I sent Zach to the same place I got my nipples pierced because they're literally the best piercing studio in Pittsburgh, in case anyone is interested. It also helps that it's superclose to Carnegie Mellon. And apparently he went to college ACROSS THE STREET from his high school? 
> 
> And that piercing I don't name is called a smiley. :) (I know way too much about body piercing, and this one totally ran away from me, but feel free to talk to me about body piercing all the time.) And Primanti sandwiches are life.
> 
> I'm on Tumblr [@moitmiller](moitmiller.tumblr.com).


End file.
